The administration of many medications requires specific dosing regimens that occur over a relatively long period of time. To this end, the development of syringe pumps has dramatically benefited patients needing volumetrically proportioned delivery of their medication. Conventional syringe pumps generally comprise a housing upon which to mount a syringe. The syringe is typically filled with one or more chemical, nutritional or biological substances that are mixed into a uniform solution. A piston drive associated with the pump forces a plunger through the syringe. As the plunger travels through the syringe, the contents of the syringe are forced out into flexible tubing and/or catheters and into the patient.
Typically, the contents for syringes are mixed and the syringes filled by pharmacists at a facility. The pharmacists, in turn, select a syringe from among a small selection that can be used by the syringe pumps for that facility. In turn, the selection of syringes to use with syringe pumps is often programmed into those syringe pumps at the factory and static. Thus, conventional syringe pumps are configured to operate with only that small selection of syringes, and pharmacists within a facility are limited to those syringes. However, drug manufacturers have recently begun mixing their drugs at their facilities, and thus have begun to utilize their own custom syringes for containing their respective drugs. These custom syringes are often different from the selection of syringes that are used by a particular facility, and thus are often different from the syringes that can be used the syringe pumps for that facility as the syringe pumps do not contain data about the new syringes to use to infuse the contents thereof.
Consequently, there is a continuing need to update syringe pumps for operation with new syringes.